TIME TO VENT

Sounds like it's beer thirty allready....

Can't you tie the kids to a tree somewhere? HA! Only kidding....

Have similar things here all the time....3 kids and my wife doesnt work....2 are in school during the week....and my wife used to go grocery shopping on the weekend....would be gone for 3 1/2 to 4 hours

Also, you could get a flowbee

I guess i'm pretty lucky then, last year my wife used the splitter, she split and piled about 80% of the 20 full cords of wood we put up(to get at least a couple years ahead). I did have to buck it up for her though. She amazes me with the work she can do for a tiny woman. I think i'll keep her...

I hear you Adirondack....got 6, 4 and 18 months here.....my wife wonders why I stack wood in the dark after the kids go to bed..."when else am I going to get it done"

Got 3 kids...been there done it. BUT times are better. Got laid up for 3 months due to shoulder surgery, bucked 12 cord of rock maple/beech before surgery....now 3 kids are 15/13/10. Guess what they're going to be doing on school vaca? I'll be the foreman.

I know you've heard this before, but take time and enjoy them when they are that age or any age for that matter. Trust me when I(and everyone around you) tells you they grow up quick. If you've got to wait a few months to finish splitting, no big deal.

I'm stacking wood with an 8 mo. old on my back these days. Great workout.

last weekend I had my 4 kids(15,13,12,8) and my wife (no comment) helping me split and stack. Wood moves fast down a line of kids.

My daughter's gonna be 25 this October, and she got married this past January. Hard to imagine where all that time went so quickly. If I could spend a day with her instead of the wood, there'd be no question which I'd choose. Sure, things have to get done...but the kids'll be grown and gone before you know it. Cherish every opportunity you have to spend time with them. Rick

what? like noone here has rotten kids? I stacked wood, and shoveled coal, but not for bonding time, it was punishment for mouthing off. I'm good at mouthing off, and by consequence, i'm good at stacking and shoveling

(i have a 6 year old son, and I agree with you all, he fetches better than a dog, picks up after himself better than I, and.....I think he's smarter than me too)

I don't have any kids yet; sounds like it su__s! :lol:

CTburns said:

I don't have any kids yet; sounds like it su__s! :lol:

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Naw,,it just tries you from time to time. Had three of em,,the Navy took two and the Army, my baby girl! We`ll they are all civilians now, and between two of em , I have 5 grandkids. One day you come home and there`s no bit*^#! about school sports ,yesterdays best friend, chores and grades. Then it sets in---"Empty Nest Syndrome"----For the first time you welcome that flock of blackbirds landing in your trees,,,just to bring some noise back to the house. Took close to a year to adjust!

Delta-T said:

what? like noone here has rotten kids? I stacked wood, and shoveled coal, but not for bonding time, it was punishment for mouthing off. I'm good at mouthing off, and by consequence, i'm good at stacking and shoveling

(i have a 6 year old son, and I agree with you all, he fetches better than a dog, picks up after himself better than I, and.....I think he's smarter than me too)

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Spent a lot of time splitting(by hand) 12+ cord a year growing up. Mouthy? a little, mainly goofing off, coming home late. Still look back at as those times as good.

got 3 kids, kinda rotten at times(very seldom), but so aren't I(more than seldom). We deal with each other. It's all part of it. Would not trade 'em. They might me right now, but they have no choice in the matter.

I remember when I was in high school - I think it was high school....We were spending the weekend in our cabin in the mountains. I was doing homework and my father was eating breakfast and reading his newspaper. For some unknown reason he looked my way and asked 'A penny for your thoughts?' I am ashamed to say but the first thoughts that ran through my head were 'Too little and too late'. What I said out loud was something like 'Oh nothing'...

My father was always busy with his projects or catching up on office work or reading his newspaper. Never took the time to simply 'be' with any of us kids and as a result he ended up not having much of a relationship with any of us. As an adult I see now it was my dad who missed out. He had a bunch of really neat children and he never really got to know any of us. When he wanted to it was too late.

The wood will always be there. As others have said, the children will grow up way too fast. Enjoy them, you are the only father they will ever have.

Some of my very fondest memories of my father are the times we spent doing "chores", same thing with Mum. I was frequently "pressed into service". Didn't matter if it was going to the lumberyard to get sawdust for my horse's bedding, haying, sorting scrap metal from plumbing/heating jobs for the trip to scrap yard, or stacking firewood. We would just sort of methodically work through the task at hand, kibbitzing about little "daily life" stuff. Amazingly, the problems in my life seemed considerably smaller and more manageable after we finished the chore du jour. I did not realize it at the time, but very few of my friends spent anywhere near the amount of time with their parents that I did, even though they used to be horrified by the things that constituted "family time" at my house. And that time is probably the reason I've never had anyt trouble rolling outta the rack to get to work, I'm punctual and organized, I've never been a slave to money, and I've never regarded "chores" as something odious and something to avoid.

Our family albums are full of pictures of Mum and Dad working away on some project with my brother working along side them, and me and the dog set up nearby with some toys. The 'rents were big on teaching us to amuse ourselves while they did something else and kept an eye on us. That's where I learned to "hang out", lol.

this was my fire wood crew today . not much help . but it was fun and took twice the time .

There's nothing wrong with that, Hoot

Right now, hoot, your time is their time. Enjoy it. Soon enough, they won't have time for you. ;-P Rick

fossil said:

Right now, hoot, your time is their time. Enjoy it. Soon enough, they won't have time for you. ;-P Rick

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my sone and i done everything together growing up . from working to hunting and sports , when he bacame 15 and said . i dont want to go , was one of the hardest times in my life . now i spend all the time i can with the grandkids . i dont want to be rememberd as that old man who never had time for fun .. hoot